The Growth of Online Business in Iran

Not a day goes by when we don’t hear about the growth of the online businesses and the success of start-ups. But the other side of this coin is the threat that it poses to the traditional market of the country.

Although it might take time, it is obvious that online business is going to win in the end.

Given the power of the start-ups, in the near future they can disrupt the traditional and offline market and create new markets for themselves. Soon traditional market players will not be able to influence prices. In other words, in most parts of the world, offline do not exist anymore and are replaced by online ones.

For instance, ever since Amazon entered the book selling market, most of the bookstores throughout the U.S have closed down because when people needed books they simply ordered it from the website. This has happened to many offline businesses in the U.S. Let us take a few steps back in history. We have witnessed that every time a new technology or invention replaced an old one, the old one was simply forgotten after a short while.

A good example is the development of sending a message from telegraph to telex and fax and email and mobile applications such as Skype, Viber and Telegram. Another example is the development of photography from old analogue cameras to modern ones and then to digital cameras and now to mobile cameras which has rendered nonprofessional cameras literally useless and out of sale.

It can be concluded that throughout history, new technology has always been triumphant over the old and has always found its way into the human society.

We should accept that in today’s world, start-ups or online businesses can replace the traditional market in any way possible. It might take a while but in the end, it’s the online businesses and start-ups that come out of it winning. Offline businesses are aware of this fact too that if they do not change, they will be replaced by start-ups. So it’s only natural for them to feel threatened and attempt to deal with their problem.